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Oklahoma State University and Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service Le Vigneron A newsletter for the grape growers and wine makers of Oklahoma Volume 6, issue 3 July-September 2011 Editor: Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight • Eric T. Stafne Boy, it sure has been a scorching summer so far. I reported in my July 7th blog entry that for the month of June some locations in the state have been 8 to 10 degrees above normal. And it sure doesn’t look to be any better in the next couple of months. In this issue I tackle the divide between grape growers and wine makers in the state — this also was ripped right from my blog (if you are not reading it, why not?). Also in this issue we ask for some assistance to help guide our way and the way of the industry in Oklahoma. On page two there is a request to com- Inside this issue: plete a survey for the Oklahoma Grape Industry Council. On pages 9 and 11 are two more survey opportunities, the first to help the OSU Hot Time... 1 Viticulture and Enology website get better and provide the information you want and need and the second is on a more national scale to help GMSC Update 1 the Grape Community of Practice and eViticulture.org get some idea of how we can assist growers. All very important and won’t take much of eViticulture Update 2 your time. William McGlynn adds a new Technical Tipple to this issue on an Oklahoma wine that looks promising, but holds a dark, sinister OGIC Survey 2 secret. I have also included some photos and notes on how vines seem to be recovering (or not) from the devastating February freeze event. Technical Tipple 3 Not everything is rosy at the Perkins vineyard, let me put it that way, and I don’t think we even know what the full effects are yet. So, go Technical Tipple Cont. 4 ahead and read on in this third issue of the year — maybe it will even stir up “A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight”. GG/WM Paradox 5 GG/WM Paradox, cont. 6 2011 OSU Grape Management Short Course Update Operation: Grapevine 7-8 Eric T. Stafne Recovery OSU Website Survey 9 The OSU GMSC has motored right along — we have had four classes to date with three left to go. We have had the opportunity to see some classic Cultivar Spotlight 10 cold damage symptoms. With the May rains we were able to see disease flare-ups, especially black rot. We have covered a lot of ground since the National Grape Survey 11 beginning of the course, but there is still quite a bit left to go. One of the disappointing parts of the class is that there is not enough time to cover all one needs to know. But, we do the best we can and believe we give the stu- dent a good foundation for learning more. We have a good crop of students this year who are eager to learn. VOLUME 6, ISSUE 3 LE VIGNERON PAGE 2 eViticulture.org Update Eric T. Stafne The web resource, eViticulture.org, has been up and running now for a few months. We keep track of usage through Google Analytics and have found some interesting things so far (although the sample size is too small to make any conclusions yet). So far, eviticulture.org is the entry point of choice to our information by a small margin over extension.org/grapes. The most visited content page is “Starting a Vineyard” followed by “Parts of the Grape Vine: Flowers and Fruit” and “Partes de la Planta de Uva: Brotes”. As you can see one of the most visited pages is in Spanish. In fact, Spanish-speaking countries make four of the top five spots for visitors. Number one is the United States, followed by Spain, Mexico, Argentina, and Chile. Within the U.S., the top state is California, followed by New York, Texas, Okla- homa, and Oregon. I am glad to say that Oklahoma made the top five. The other states are all much larger producers than we are, but it shows our increasing interest in viticulture education. More articles will be added as time goes along, after all, this is a dynamic web resource with all kinds of opportunities for new information. It is also information you can trust. Every article posted on our site is reviewed by two viticulture specialists and you can see who they are as well as the author of the article. If you have not taken a look at the site I encourage you to do so and provide some feedback by going to the back page of this news- letter and follow the link to our survey or just right to it here: https://okstatecasnr.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_agjMhFmvr6f4TMo Oklahoma Grape Industry Council Vineyard Survey Eric T. Stafne The Oklahoma Grape Industry Council (OGIC) is trying to get a handle on the number of vineyards in the state with all the related details. Why do they want to know? One reason is to help you sell your grapes to a winery, by pairing those with grapes to those who need grapes. Another is to have hard numbers to help market the industry to the public and to political figures. They want to grow the industry and with your assistance they can move in that direction. So, if you own a vineyard please provide that information to OGIC. The contact in- formation is below: Jimmy Johns [email protected] (405) 942-3333 or (405) 436-1629 Here are some things they would like to know — is your vineyard commercial or hobby ? How many acres do you have? How many vines ? Which varieties ? Tonnage ? And any other details you think would be useful. This is extremely important information to the grape and wine industry of Oklahoma. You can help move it in a positive direction by responding to this call for information. I will also put out a call in my blog and email, so if you receive this message multiple times, my apologies, but hopefully it will serve as a reminder. VOLUME 6, ISSUE 3 LE VIGNERON PAGE 3 The Technical Tipple William McGlynn The wine on the bench and in the glass in this edition of Le Vigneron is a blended red from right here in sunny Oklahoma. A vintner must keep his or her secrets, so we don’t know exactly what grapes went into this blend. We do know that it consists primarily of hybrid grapes, including Chambourcin among others. We also know that there might be some white grape wine added as well, to lighten and sweeten the blend. The wine is intended to be enjoyed as a basic table wine, and is so labeled. Suit- able for drinking with a light meal, or for sipping with snacks or appetizers, it’s meant to be immedi- ately accessible and drinkable. The wine might or might not be sweet and fruity enough to entice the novice imbiber, but it shouldn’t scare him or her away either. As a product, this wine is meant to be sturdy and reliable, pleasant and useful but not too flamboyant. In that, it should be a very depend- able bottle for a winery to have on its shelves. Does this wine succeed in its modest but laudable goals? Well, yes and no. More on that in a mo- ment, but first let’s look at the objective test results we obtained: Oklahoma Red Blend pH: 3.35 Titratable acidity: 7.1 g/L (0.71%) as tartaric Free SO 2: 55 ppm Residual sugar: 0.1% (1 g/L) Alcohol: 12.9% (Labeled as Table Wine) Looking at the pH and acidity of the wine, we see that the pH was at the low end of the desirable range for a red wine (~3.3 – 3.5) while the titratable acidity was well within the desirable range for a red (~6 – 8 g/L). The residual sugar content was about 1 g/L (0.1%), which places it well within the dry range. The alcohol content was 12.9% as measured by Ebulliometer. This falls within the re- quired range for wine labeled as “Table Wine”, which is 7-14% alcohol. The free SO 2 level was measured at 55 ppm. This translates to a molecular SO 2 concentration of about 1.5 mg/L (ppm) at a pH of 3.35, which well above the standard baseline of 0.6 mg/L molecular SO 2 recommended to insure storage stability. Overall the fundamental chemistry of this wine appears to be sound. The subjective impressions : The wine was extremely clear, with a brilliant ruby red color. Some might argue that it was over- filtered, but the degree of clarity may arguably serve to boost the wine’s popular appeal. In any case, the degree of filtration doesn’t appear to have stripped the wine’s aromas or flavors. The legs were not pronounced – as expected given the moderate alcohol content and relatively low residual sugar concentration. All in all, the wine gave a pleasant appearance in the glass. -continued page 4- VOLUME 6, ISSUE 3 LE VIGNERON PAGE 4 The Technical Tipple, Cont. William McGlynn The aroma of the wine was fairly complex, fruity smells predominated, including black cherry, currant, and raisin. There were also some spicy aromas of black pepper and licorice. There were hints of sage and eucalyptus as well, along with an earthy note (more on that below).

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